That’s a good question, one the city of Peoria wants answered by May 13. That’s when EM Properties will ask City Council members to allow a switch in management of the Marriott Pere Marquette (open less than a year) and Courtyard by Marriott (targeted to open next month).

Right now, the hotels are being run by Marriott International. But EM Properties wants to put operations into the hands of First Hospitality Group, based in Rosemont.

“The Marriott brand is staying,” said Gary Matthews, president of East Peoria based EM. “I have a contract with Marriott for 30 years.”

But, from the outside, this switcheroo seems strange. Granted, I’m a business-school drop-out, so I’ve yet to be asked to run a hotel, a motel or even a dog kennel. And I realize the Peoria project is a franchise, so EM Properties has the right to pick whomever it wants to run the joint. But how can it be that Marriott can’t do Marriott well enough? What’s next? McDonald’s fires Ronald McDonald and hires the Taco Bell Chihuahua?

But Matthews said as far as management goes, First Hospitality Group (FHG) has upsides over Marriott, which is based in Washington, D.C. For one, FHG knows this area better, he said.

“They specialize in hotels that are in the Midwest,” Matthews said. “Third-party management is a big art. They’re very sensitive to the local area’s needs and wants.”

In part, that’d mean a step up in marketing, Matthews said. But he didn’t want to discuss specifics of any promo plan. And he didn’t want to discuss specifics of Marriott’s management.

“I’m not going to talk bad about Marriott, because they’re the best company as far as hotels,” Matthews said.

But he said FHG, in addition to a boost in marketing, would increase training. FHG can do that more easily than Marriott because FHG is far closer. And at the Marriott Pere Marquette, improved training — management, as well as other employees — is a big need, Matthews said.

I’m not sure what all that means. Has management not managed right? Have other employees not done their jobs as well as expected? Matthews didn’t go into details. But he said that although no employees are at risk, “they have to be well trained to stay up with the times.”

Page 2 of 3 - OK. Better marketing and training. Those are good things. Peoria wants that. Remember, not only is this $100-million project a Downtown showpiece, it also involves a $29-million city bond and a $7-million city loan. The city and its taxpayers want these hotels to be run as well as possible.

Meanwhile, Matthews says the change is no big deal to Marriott. The corporation has many franchisees, he says — and a switch from Marriott management isn’t unusual. In fact, it happens often enough that Marriott has “a system, called a conversion,” Matthews says. And, among third-party management teams, FHG is “preferred” by Marriott, Matthews said.

OK. Dandy. But why not hire FHG from the beginning?

“I didn’t know about them, to be honest,” Matthews said.

Hmm. Is that unsettling? FHG is located less than three hours away. Marriott endorses the operation. And Matthews is the developer of hotels. Yet he hadn’t heard of FHG?

I have no reason to doubt FHG’s abilities. I just wonder how it existed under Matthews’ radar for so long, yet now is expected to work wonders.

And that brings us to the key question: How much work faces FHG? How much will it take to right this ship? Just a little turn of the captain’s wheel? Or is there an iceberg coming up quick?

Matthews said it’s not the latter. He said business at the Marriott Pere Marquette is all right.

“It’s not that it hasn’t been good,” Matthews says. “But it’s that a local management company, and (suburban) Chicago is what I’d call local, can do a better job.”

Matthews didn’t want to talk about financial specifics, including occupancy rates. And neither the city nor the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau had those figures available.

“Performance is never as good as it could be,” Matthews said with a chuckle. “I’m always thinking we can do better.”

Without citing numbers, City Manager Patrick Urich said the Pere occupancy rates “have been consistent with other hotels.’”

As far as hitting expectations, Urich said the Pere “is in the ballpark.”

Still, though Matthews had recently mentioned to Urich the possibility of making a management change, details have yet to be specified — to Urich or the city. And the city, as part of the lending group in the project, would have to approve the switch.

“I think we want to make sure that we know 100 percent why Gary wants to make the change,” Urich said. “By all indications, they (FHG) look like a reputable business. But we’ll do our own due diligence.”

Page 3 of 3 - In itself, though, the change doesn’t alarm Urich.

“I think change is inevitable in any development,” Urich says.

Perhaps. Then again, this project has had multiple changes. The design changed. The workload changed. The opening dates changed.

At some point, at least from the outside view, perhaps we’d welcome some same-ol’ same-ol’ with this project. Long-term stability is good in any business plan.